Cratchit!

Can you actually claim to have experienced Christmas if you don't have at least one viewing of A Christmas Carol under your belt before Boxing Day? Charles Dickens' cultural force has been adapted and reworked and twisted and updated and even made into puppet show in which all the puppets were potatoes (I was a starry-eyed impresario of 34 that year, and my mother slapped me and ordered me to stop playing with my dinner). Forget all those needless reinventions and return to the source: The Nebraska Theatre Caravan presents A Christmas Carol that is very traditional and supremely Victorian in tone and aesthetic, with the added filigree of Christmas carols inserted into the production. They perform the show at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday (December 9 through 12) at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; 314-534-1111 or www.fabulousfox.com). Tickets are $18 to $36.
Dec. 9-12, 2010